Police shouldn't have to plant cocaine on suspects to keep their jobs
A policeman convicting of planting evidence says he did so under pressure from arrest quotas. Jason Arbeeny, charged with planting crack cocaine on an innocent couple, broke down and cried in court, according to a recent article in the Huffington Post. His defense cited the department's "productivity goals" as the reason Arbeeny felt he had to plant evidence.
Arbeeny's trial proved that he is far from alone in planting evidence to make arrest quotas. In fact, the practice is so common it has a nickname--"flaking"--within the NYPD. A similarly nefarious 2011 trial saw former narcotics detective Stephen Anderson admitting that a drug bust he led incriminated four innocent men. Tell the NYPD that arrest quotas do not make for good law enforcement. Tell them to find other ways to show that their officers are "productive."
We the undersigned are saddened that any police officer would feel he had to plant evidence because of arrest quotas disguised as "productivity goals."
We would like to respectfully suggest that there many, many ways a police officer can be productive other than by cuffing somebody and many other ways his value can be assessed. If a neighborhood feels safer because a police officer is there, he is being productive. If he gently reminds people to follow the law on a daily basis, he is being productive. Don't measure success by the number of arrests.
